In public toilets it is desirable to maintain the toilet seat in a vertical or upright position when it is not in use. The user may manually pull the seat to a horizontal position. In private homes it is desirable for aesthetic reasons to have the toilet seat in a horizontal position, and a person desiring to urinate normally lifts the seat to an upright position before urinating. The prior art, U.S. Pat. No. 4,195,372, shows a spring for returning a seat to the desired position: upright for public toilets and horizontal for private toilets.
These spring-biased seats, however, present a hazard to users in that they must be held by the user to a desired position and when the user releases the seat it snaps to a vertical position in public toilets and to a horizontal position for private toilets. This fast-moving toilet seat may strike the user or at least be uncomfortable or inconvenient.